Science Universe

Actor and best-selling science writer Ben Miller takes listeners to the cutting edge of one of the greatest questions of all: Is there life beyond Earth?

Terra. For centuries, it has been the Clans’ ultimate prize. As prophesied by their founder, Nicholas Kerensky, the Clan that conquers Terra shall ascend above all others to become the ilClan, ruler over the rest of the Clans. And its leader shall become the ilKhan, and will lead the Inner Sphere into a new era.

Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

Thirty meters tall, 70 tons of quick-striding death and destruction, the armored war machines called BattleMechs are the frontline forces of the crumbling star empire locked in the horror of the endless Succession Wars. Their pilots are MechWarriors, 31st-century knights riding armored machines powerful enough to take a city apart. Grayson Death Carlyle had been training to be a MechWarrior since he was 10 years old, but his graduation came sooner than expected.

Before a war that ravaged the realms, and claimed the lives of countless souls, Mordred had been the loyal son of a man who would go on to become a tyrant. He was given over to his enemies to be tortured and experimented on, turning him into a twisted and evil monster. It took Mordred a long time to claw his way back from the abyss he was in, to stand up beside his friends and fight for the freedom of people who had distrusted and hated him for so long.

Sean Carroll is creating a profoundly new approach to sharing physics with a broad audience, one that goes beyond analogies to show how physicists really think. He cuts to the bare mathematical essence of our most profound theories, explaining every step in a uniquely accessible way. Quantum field theory is how modern physics describes nature at its most profound level. Starting with the basics of quantum mechanics itself, Sean Carroll explains measurement and entanglement before explaining how the world is really made of fields.

There is no more profound, enduring, or fascinating question in all of science than that of how time, space, and matter began. Now John Barrow, who has been at the cutting edge of research in this area and has written extensively about it, guides us on a journey to the beginning of time, into a world of temperatures and densities so high that we cannot recreate them in a laboratory.

Five stories from the Powder Mage Universe, including the never-before-published "Green-Eyed Vipers".

Bethany Anne and Michael have adjusted to family life. She and her husband have two children to protect and raise - not an easy task when your children are...gifted. Her plan to protect her children from harm is coming to fruition. However, she didn’t count on their father.... Away from home, the game begins again when a scout ship runs into trouble, and a mysterious new enemy threatens the stability of the nascent Federation. The endgame is underway.

When Jake spies a bowl of jellybeans at the hotel where his mom works, he eats them. But uh-oh—those weren’t just jellybeans, one of the scientists at his mom’s conference is in the process of developing the first ingestible information pills. And THAT’S what Jake ate. Before long, Jake is the smartest kid in the universe. But the pills haven’t been tested yet. And when word gets out about this new genius, people want him. The government. The mega corporations. Not all of them are nice!

Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: We still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the beginning of cosmic history.

Since Copernicus, humanity has increasingly seen itself as adrift, an insignificant speck within a large, cold universe. Brazilian physicist, astronomer, and winner of the 2019 Templeton Prize Marcelo Gleiser argues that we’re using the wrong paradigm to relate to the universe and our position in it. In this deeply researched and beautifully rendered book, he calls for us to embrace a new life-centric perspective, one which recognizes just how rare and precious life is and why it should be our mission to preserve and nurture it.

The kompani see none as an enemy, and yet few as friend. The kompani exist in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream. The Clan Korval is in many ways the opposite of the kompani. The interstellar trading clan is wealthy in enemies, and fortunate in friends. Korval protects itself with vigor, and teaches even its youngest children the art of war

If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe? Which is exactly what the crew of the

Heart of Gold plan to do. There’s just the small matter of escaping the Vogons, avoiding being taken to the most totally evil world in the Galaxy and teaching a space ship how to make a proper cup of tea. And did anyone actually make a reservation?

Billy Boustany had the adventure of a lifetime. Now, all he wants to do is to go back to the amazing universe he discovered. But the power brokers over there warned him to stay away and keep his mouth shut. At the same time, Diyami Red Hawk, an idealistic young man from that universe, has connected with Billy’s daughter and is on a mission to build a modern Native American city in our world. But he’s getting nowhere—until he finds support in unexpected places.

Lottery is a novella taking place in Hugh Howey's World of Wool. In the world of the silo, falling in love comes with its own set of rules. As young Tabitha and Justin begin their lives together, they know what they can and cannot do. Then the impossible happens and Tabitha finds out she is with child. With no lottery ticket to redeem, the consequences for pregnancy are harsh: every addition requires a subtraction. From the Down Deep to the Up Top, there is nowhere to hide. It won't be long before the truth comes out and her husband is sent outside and put to cleaning. There is just one way...

Prepare to learn everything we still don’t know about our strange and mysterious Universe. Humanity's understanding of the physical world is full of gaps. Not tiny little gaps you can safely ignore - there are huge yawning voids in our basic notions of how the world works. PHD Comics creator Jorge Cham and particle physicist Daniel Whiteson have teamed up to explore everything we don't know about the Universe: The enormous holes in our knowledge of the cosmos. Armed with entertaining and lucid explanations of science, they give us the best answers currently available.

In consequence of a number of stunning catastrophes, Arthur Dent is surprised to find himself living in a hideously miserable cave on prehistoric Earth. However, just as he thinks that things cannot get possibly worse, they suddenly do. He discovers that the Galaxy is not only mind-boggingly big and bewildering but also that most of the things that happen in it are staggeringly unfair.

For many billions of years, humans - having conquered the curse of aging - spread throughout the entire Milky Way. They are able to live all their dreams, but to their great disappointment, no other intelligent species has ever been encountered. Now, humanity itself is on the brink of extinction because the universe is dying a protracted yet inevitable death.

The luck runs rough around Theo Waitley. Not only are people trying to kill her and capture the self-aware intelligent ship, Bechimo, to whom Theo is bonded, they're also trying to arrest her crew membersand throw the dignity of an important passenger, the duly constituted norbear ambassador Hevelin, into question. No wonder Theo and her crew felt the need for a break and retired to what Bechimo refers to as "safe space". Unfortunately, safe space may not be so safe anymore.